Reflections
by EilonwyCousland QueenofTragedy
Summary: Kira Shepard reflects on the choices she has made as she dies. Rated M for character death. Set in the beginning of ME2 but speaks of the events of the first game. The cover image is what Kira looks like.


This story follows my head-canon playthrough for Mass Effect One. Strong H/C and possibly turning into the AU realm in later installments. I haven't really thought that far ahead, yet. I never even thought I would write a ME story in the first place, let alone multiple. Enjoy and review if you have the time!

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**Reflections**

_A Mass Effect Story_

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The ship was on fire. Pieces of it, burning, people screaming. Chaos, everywhere. She could hear explosions going off... loud booms that pierced the air and filled the ship with smoke and the smell of burning flesh. XO Pressly was dead; a handful of crewman, also dead. Everywhere she turned there were bodies. Her thoughts whirled through her mind as she rushed towards Joker. Would they survive? Would she survive? After everything they'd all been through... to die like this...

As she begged and pleaded with Joker to abandoned ship, Commander Kira thought back on her life. A strange feeling of foreboding washed over her, sending chills down her spine. She had fought through so much in the race to defeat Saren but somehow, she knew she wasn't making it out of this one alive. She couldn't explain how she knew, but she knew. She had thwarted death more than once, now it was finally her time.

There wasn't a better place for her to die, though. Out in space, on a ship. She had been born and raised on a ship, both her parents were Alliance. The soft hum of an engine was her lullaby. When she closed her eyes she could still see her father, tall and proud, dressed in his Alliance blues. She could see him, catching her as she raced about the ship, tossing her in the air as she giggled in childish delight. Her mother, standing nearby with a smile on her face. They had been so proud of her when she enlisted in the military. Her mom had been even more proud the day she had been named the first human Specter.

Kira grabbed Joker by arm and felt a bone crack. She winced but continued pulling him along, forcing him to the only remaining escape pod. Suddenly she felt her body being forced outside the ship and she reached out, grabbing on to a scrap of metal. With one last bit of effort she struggled to push the eject button. She watched as Joker's pod was ejected safely from the burning Normandy. And then she was pulled out into open space- floating helplessly against the black.

As she floated aimlessly, Kira's mind drifted to the fight on Virmire. Leaving her friend and comrade, Ashley, to die. It had been the hardest choice she had ever made but she couldn't leave Kaidan behind. She'd had only a second to decide and, in that moment, she had made a completely selfish decision. The thought of leaving Kaidan behind, of losing him, had been too much. And Ash had died, sacrificing her life to insure that bomb went off. Kira vowed never to forget that sacrifice. But it wasn't the only hard choice she had to make, just one of the most recent.

Akuze had been just as hard for her. It had started out as just a routine mission, just a quick check-up to see how the colony was fairing. But there was nothing routine about Akuze. Kira and her unit had found the entire colony gone. Nothing but a perfectly intact settlement. So, they made camp, poked around a bit. When they didn't find anything they had decided to stay overnight, inspect the place further in the morning, when it was light out. But her unit never lived that long. Kira shivered, even now, to think of the group of Thresher Maws that had set themselves upon her unit. She had watched as, one-by-one, each man and woman of her unit was slaughtered by the Thresher Maws. She had barely escaped, and her decision to leave and not look for survivors haunted her even now.

To be honest, her entire career had been filled with hard choices. She had done her best to save every life, human or otherwise, that she could. She firmly believed that humans and the other races of the galaxy could get along and live together, if they tried. And she believed every life was valuable, not just humans. But very few of her fellows saw it that way, even Kaidan didn't understand completely. That's why she let Shiala live, even though it was risky. It's why she let the Rachni Queen go free, despite how angry it made, well, nearly everyone. She wanted to believe that everyone could be good, if they chose to be. She only hoped she made the right choices. She could only pray that letting hundreds of humans die in order to save the Council wasn't the wrong decision.

Kira could feel her breathing become more difficult and she could hear a hissing sound coming from her air tubes. She had sprung a leak. As she fell toward the planet below, her lungs struggling desperately for air, she reflected on her life. It... had been a good life. She had saved who she could, defeated Saren, and even fell in love. She smiled as she felt her life ebbing away from her. Kaidan had been her rock when she thought there was no way out, no hope. When they had lost Ashley on Virmire, he had comforted her with his gentle smile and carefully chosen words. He had even kept her fighting when Liara almost died on Noveria. As she drew her last breath, her thoughts were of him. Her first, in so many ways. She hoped he would move on, without her, and be happy. She prayed he wouldn't feel too much pain at her death and that he would smile again, someday. Commander Kira Shepard's last thoughts were of her friends and lover, hoping they would not suffer in her absence.


End file.
